10 Best Alternative Christmas Movies

5. Batman Returns

It ranks amongst the strangest movie sequels in Hollywood, made all the more peculiar by the decision to set Tim Burton's dark, expressionist follow- up against a backdrop of carol singers and fake snow. Suffice to say no-one expected a Batman Christmas spectacular concerning a rampaging army of penguins and a whip-cracking dominatrix. The tone is set when a team of anarchist circus performers disrupt the lighting of the Gotham City tree. Add to this a natty bit of dialogue about mistletoe, which leads to Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle accidentally uncovering their secret identities, and you see how yuletide plays a key role in proceedings.

The movie closes with Alfred and a battered Bruce exchanging compliments of the season. Burton and writer Daniel Waters (one of the most underrated screen scribes in history - where did he go?) were also keen to satirize the epic merchandizing that would accompany the release. In one deadly sequence The Penguin rides a Batmobile arcade game wired to the Dark Knight's mode of transportation and a deleted scene would have seen racks of Bat- toys go up in smoke.